GOOD HOMES ALLIANCE PROPOSES NEW APPROACH TO ENVIRONMENTAL
ASSESSMENT OF BUILDING MATERIALS

A new approach to the environmental assessment of
building materials to ensure the most suitable materials are
selected for sustainable construction is being proposed to
Government by the Good Homes Alliance (GHA), following its critique
of the BRE Green Guide and the BRE’s subsequent response.

In November 2008, the GHA issued a detailed analysis of the Green
Guide to Government, which, at top level, concluded that flaws in
the document’s ratings approach and a lack of transparency in
methodology and data were undermining good building design,
discouraging innovation and preventing understanding of the
environmental impact of building materials.

In response, the BRE has since published the Guide’s methodology and
has admitted to several of the shortcomings highlighted.

Neil May, Chairman of the GHA, comments: “The BRE has noted that, as
environmental assessment remains an evolving science, the Green
Guide should not be used as a planning tool, with the Guide’s Home
Page stating that ‘the specifications shown throughout the Green
Guide should not… be used as a basis for on-site construction’ and
that they are of generic nature only.

“We believe that the clarifications added to the Green Guide website
and the BRE news releases issued in December, are a direct result of
the GHA critique and are pleased to be influential in helping to
improve the tools and legislation used by the construction industry
to assist in the delivery of sustainable homes and buildings.”

May continues: “However, while the BRE’s clarifications are welcome,
they do not go far enough. A BRE news release addressing our
critique admits that ‘there are risks that users will simply use it
as a tick box activity’, when in actual fact, this is exactly how
the Guide was designed. The BRE also now explicitly recommends that
targets based on the Guide should not be set independently, by
Planning Authorities for example. However, this information is
hidden away and such organisations have not been contacted directly
to ensure they realise how the Guide should and should not be used.”

Despite the BRE’s clarifications and further planned changes, the
GHA believes that the Green Guide still adopts a flawed approach to
materials assessment, which will hinder the progress of knowledge,
design and innovation for the following reasons:

• Complete lack of transparency of data

• Use of generic ratings which are too general to be of value

• Use of Elemental ratings (construction build ups) which further
hide and confuse proper environmental assessment

• The particular methodology of A+ to E ratings

As a solution to the general difficulty of assessing the
environmental impact of building materials, the GHA is proposing a
new approach, which it will discuss with CLG and BRE at the end of
the month. The new system is based on the principles of simplicity,
integrity and learning and should be publicly owned, use transparent
data and feedback into further research and learning.

Neil May comments: “Assessing the environmental impact of materials
is not yet an exact science so we should avoid using any system as a
statutory or planning tool until the level of available data is much
higher. We should deal only with what we know to be fact and keep it
easy to understand and learn from. Any system should be publicly
owned and funded to keep it accessible to stakeholders and remain
rigorously independent with an expert review process in place.
Finally, the monitoring of actual practice in industry and on site
is essential. We hope to help the industry to move forward along
these lines, keeping to the key principles of simplicity, integrity
and learning.”